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Posted on December 27, 2011 08:55
The Spirit Of Giving Lives
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| This man does some late Christmas shopping at the K-Mart in Yankton Friday afternoon. Several anonymous people have given more than $2,000 to the store to help less-fortunate families pay off their bills for purchases of toys and children’s clothing. “This is really happening by people’s own choice,” said Yankton K-Mart manager Jim Simpson. “They come into the store and say they wish to make an anonymous donation. What an amazing thing to do.” (Kelly Hertz/P&D) |
Anonymous Donations Spread Christmas Cheer
Published: Saturday, December 24, 2011 1:12 AM CST
The spirit of Chiristmas is really about the spirit of giving.
For many families in the Yankton area, that spirit of Christmas has touched their lives in many ways this season.
Recently, in the national news there have been reports of thousands of people anonymously paying off lay-away balances across the country, primarily in K-Mart stores.
Yankton is no different.
Yankton K-Mart store manager Jim Simpson said his store has seen more than $2,000 in anonymous giving to help give less fortunate families of the area a better Christmas.
“It just has brought a lot of tears to our employees’ eyes,” he said. “We have been applying the donated money to layaway accounts that are due soon or maybe a bit past due, specifically ones that have toys or children’s clothing on them.”
He said the families who receive the calls have been overwhelmed by the generosity.
“It is just an amazing thing happening in K-Marts across the country,” Simpson said. “It isn’t anything we promoted. It is just something that one person started and it has swelled across the county.”
Simpson said K-Mart has not done press releases on the event because it is not something it has organized.
“This is really happening by people’s own choice,” he said. “They come into the store and say they wish to make an anonymous donation. What an amazing thing to do.”
While the majority of the donations have been made at K-Marts across the country, Yankton Wal-Mart store manager said that they have seen donations, as well.
Meanwhile, the Yankton Mall did a Christmas Tree fundraiser for families in the Yankton area who might not have had a Christmas tree were it not for the kindness of 43 individuals, businesses and groups from the community.
In November, each group involved donated a tree, complete with decorations, to be set up in the mall and then donated it to an area family. To select the winning tree, the mall collected donations for the Yankton Contact Center’s food pantry.
“This year the winning tree was donated by the United States Postal Service (USPS),” said Mandi Mueller of Rita’s Purse-o-nalities in the mall which co-sponsored this year’s event. “In total from 43 Christmas trees, we collected 3,131 food items. But perhaps the best thing about this year was that the USPS also donated Christmas presents and the $100 mall gift certificate they won to the family who got their tree.”
Denise Willman of the USPS in Yankton said the postal carriers have always gotten together to donate presents to families at Christmas, but this was the first year they tied it to the tree they decorate at the mall.
“We collected donations from our unions as well as individuals that work here,” she explained. “Then we went and purchased the items, wrapped them and gave them to two families in the community — one of them the family which selected our tree at the mall.”
In total, the USPS wrapped and gave a total of 35 presents to the children of the two families.
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